Looking for the best Halloween books for 4th graders? These Halloween books for 4th grade have lesson plans and activities linked. Fun and scary picture books about various topics like ghosts, aliens, monsters, the dark and more for your fourth grade students. Your students will delight in these classic and brand new books! Spooky but not too spooky!
If you’re a member of the Picture Book Brain Trust Community, you already have access to EVERY lesson plan and activity for these books! Just click on the Lesson Plans button in the menu!
Halloween Books For 4th Graders
There’s a Ghost in This House
A young girl lives in a haunted house, but she has never seen a ghost. Are they white with holes for eyes? Are they hard to see? Step inside and help the girl as she searches under the stairs, behind the sofa, and in the attic for the ghost.
The Dark
Laszlo is afraid of the dark.
The dark lives in the same house as Laszlo. Mostly, though, the dark stays in the basement and doesn’t come into Lazslo’s room. But one night, it does.
This is the story of how Laszlo stops being afraid of the dark.
Aliens Are Coming! by Meghan McCarthy
A picture-book account of one of the most famous pieces of radio history: the War of the Worlds broadcast. This is a really fun book to talk about evaluating sources and also scary until the reveal.
She Made a Monster by Lynn Fulton
On a stormy night two hundred years ago, a young woman sat in a dark house and dreamed of her life as a writer. She longed to follow the path her own mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, had started down, but young Mary Shelley had yet to be inspired.
As the night wore on, Mary grew more anxious. The next day was the deadline that her friend, the poet Lord Byron, had set for writing the best ghost story. After much talk of science and the secrets of life, Mary had gone to bed exhausted and frustrated that nothing she could think of was scary enough. But as she drifted off to sleep, she dreamed of a man that was not a man. He was a monster.
Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey
How does a story begin? Sometimes it begins with a dream, and a dreamer. Mary is one such dreamer. On a stormy summer evening, with five young people gathered around a fire, one of the friends, Lord Byron, suggests a contest to see who can create the best ghost story. Mary Shelley has a waking dream about a monster come to life. A year and a half later, Mary Shelley’s terrifying tale, Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus, is published — a novel that goes on to become the most enduring monster story ever and one of the most popular legends of all time. In creating this story, she also created the science fiction genre earning her much celebrity, making this one of my favorite children’s books about women in sports and entertainment.
STUMPKIN
Stumpkin is the most handsome pumpkin on the block. He’s as orange as a traffic cone! Twice as round as a basketball! He has no bad side! He’s perfect choice for a Halloween jack-o-lantern. There’s just one problem—Stumpkin has a stump, not a stem. And no one seems to want a stemless jack-o-lantern for their window. As Halloween night approaches, more and more of his fellow pumpkins leave, but poor Stumpkin remains. Will anyone give Stumpkin his chance to shine?
Ol’ Clip-Clop
Mounting his horse, cold-hearted John Leep smiles as he anticipates evicting the widow Mayes for nonpayment of rent. When she comes up with the rent after all, Leep, unwilling to be disappointed, knocks her coins to the floor and hides one of them in his boot. The widow is evicted; but as he departs, Leep is pursued by an unseen stalker. As Leep rides faster, so does his pursuer–clippity-cloppity, clippity-cloppity––until Leep reaches his home. Is John Leep safe at last or is Ol’ Clip-Clop gonna SWALLOW HIM WHOLE?!!!!!
The Tailypo
In this spooky, horror-filled picture book, a strange varmint haunts the woodsman who lopped off his tail and had it for dinner.
Crankenstein
BEWARE OF CRANKENSTEIN! He’s a little monster of crankiness that no one can destroy! MEHHRRRR!!! He may look like any ordinary boy, but when faced with a rainy day, a melting popsicle, or an early bedtime, one little boy transforms into a mumbling, grumbling Crankenstein. When Crankenstein meets his match in a fellow Crankenstein, the results could be catastrophic–or they could be just what he needs to brighten his day! This hilarious and relatable tale of grumpiness gone awry will turn toddler tantrums to giggles in no time.
The Darkest Dark
Chris loves rockets and planets and pretending he’s a brave astronaut, exploring the universe. Only one problem–at night, Chris doesn’t feel so brave. He’s afraid of the dark. But when he watches the groundbreaking moon landing on TV, he realizes that space is the darkest dark there is–and the dark is beautiful and exciting, especially when you have big dreams to keep you company.
The Watertower
Nobody in Preston could remember when the watertower was built, or who had built it, but there it stood on Shooter’s Hill—its iron legs rusted, its egg-shaped tank warped and leaking—casting a long dark shadow across the valley, across Preston itself.
Beneath the Surface
A return to the land of The Watertower. Dr. Spike Trotter returns to the town of his youth to study its water. Is it too late for the town? Is it too late for the world? Is it too late…for him?
The Widow’s Broom
Some of Minna Shaw’s neighbors don’t trust her clever broom. “It’s dangerous,” they say. But Minna appreciates the broom’s help. She enjoys its quiet company.
But one day two children get taught a well-deserved lesson by the broom. For her neighbors, this is proof of the broom’s evil spirit. Minna is obligated to give up her dear companion.
Chris Van Allsburg, master of the mysterious, brings this tale to life with moody and memorable pictures that will haunt readers long after the book’s covers are closed—now in a new edition to celebrate this beloved book’s twenty-fifth anniversary.
Conclusion: Best Halloween Books For 4th Graders
What are some of your favorite Halloween books for 4th graders? Are there any must read Halloween books for 4th graders that I left out? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it!
If you’re a member of the Picture Book Brain Trust Community, you already have access to EVERY lesson plan and activity for these books! Just click on the Lesson Plans button in the menu!
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